The aim of this study was to determine the effect of: (a) different drying methods, (b) hot air temperature
in a convection oven, and (c) the moisture content of fruits dehydrated by multi-stage drying which
involves a transition between different stages of drying, on the rehydration kinetics of dry blueberries.
Models describing rehydration kinetics were also studied. Blueberries dehydrated by multi-stage
microwave-assisted drying, which involved a hot air pre-drying step at 80 C until the achievement of
a moisture content of 1.95 kg H2O kg1 DM, were characterized by significantly higher rates of initial
and successive rehydration as well as smaller initial loss of soluble solids in comparison with the samples
dried by other methods. The highest initial rehydration rate and the smallest loss of soluble solids after
30 min of soaking were determined at 0.46 min1 and 0.29 kg DM kg1 DM, respectively. The Peleg model
and the first-order-kinetic model fit the experimental data well